In regards to the news article “King Day lesson sparks outcry,” (Jan. 25), I want to thank the Charter Oak Unified School District for reminding me why I never sent my kids to any of their schools.

It would probably shock a few teachers, but a whole lot of us out here in realityville learned at an early age that racism was wrong. And that lesson was learned without having to damage the delicate psyche of a bunch of second graders.

Mike Boling

Covina

Arnold’s last decree

Re former Gov. Schwarzenegger’s reducing the sentence of Fabian Nunez’s son as a last act as governor and giving friends jobs in commissions:

Yes, I can see him now. It’s late Sunday night. Arnie is seated behind his stately governor’s desk, after signing all his last-minute documents, sucking on a stogie. His sleeves are rolled up and his tie loosened. Leaning back in his chair, he brings his arms up and locks his hands firmly behind his head and surveys the work he’s done. He’s feeling rather self important and beaming with overbearing pride. “Yah, it’s been good to be governator,” I can hear him saying through a cloud of cigar smoke. Smiling a big toothy grin he says “Hasta la vista baby, I’ll be back.” And even as this image of Arnie causes me to laugh, I have to wonder, will he be back? He’s expressed interest in running for the Senate sometime in the future so who knows? It could happen!

And so it goes, Arnie leaves office the same way he entered, in a storm of controversy. So what if Arnie gave a few of his top aides and a few of his political buddies some cushy posts before leaving. So what if three of those good buddies were Republicans who voted against their party and supported the governator’s tax increases back in 2009. What’s wrong with making a few well-paying appointments? I’m sure Arnie was just keeping some promises he made along the way, you know, repaying his debts. What’s wrong with that?

I’ll tell you what’s wrong with it! Several of those posts he gave out were some of the very same ones he’d tried to cut from the state budget earlier in his term because, as he put it, they were “just a waste of taxpayers’ money!”

So it really doesn’t matter how we may feel about his last-minute antics; there is nothing we can do about it. When all is said and done, he was the governor when he made these decisions. He had the power and authority to do it. Just another one of the perks of being the governator!

See you in the movies Arnold!

John Sausedo

San Dimas

Mental health

Over the last few days, we have been treated to the shameless behavior of despicable politicians, such as Senators Boxer and Kerry, and also, MSNBC rushing to exploit the deaths of the poor folks in Tucson to further their own agendas.

What no one has addressed is the fact that the shooter has a long and troubled past with the law and drug use.

We need to address the inability of our society to require persons such as the shooter to seek and receive medical treatment for their mental illnesses.

These folks need help and are unable to make these decisions for themselves.

Loren Kizzia

West Covina

Olvera Street protest

After reading about the protests over the construction work near Olvera Street, I have nothing but disgust toward officials of Mexican heritage.

In order to promote Mexican culture, these officials are attempting to erase Native American culture by eradicating a Native American burial site so they can build a Mexican culture center.

I think the new Mexican center should either be relocated or banned because it would be a symbol of hate. Further, people should support the Native Americans by boycotting all business sponsors of the new center and voting against all politicians who voted in favor of it because those votes led to an attempt at cultural genocide.

Robert Canales

Highland

Unaware of order

In response to Steve Scauzillo’s Jan. 11 blog post (From Steve Scauzillo’s Opinion Desk) we at the San Gabriel Valley Mosquito & Vector Control District acknowledge with regret that we failed to honor President Obama’s order requesting flags be flown at half-staff in honor of those killed and injured in Tucson.

Unfortunately, we were unaware of this presidential order and would have most certainly complied out of true respect and support for those who were so brutally attacked.

Steve West

General Manager

West Covina

Good move by Walnut

Thank you for the article on Jan. 15 (“Revised contract puts limit on cash outs for Walnut city manager”) about the city of Walnut limiting the cash payouts of their City Manager Rob Wishner. I’m a Walnut resident and am happy to see this change.

My problem is that this benefit, and other benefits like it, should never have been negotiated in the first place. It is a huge loophole that has cost city, county and state taxpayers millions of dollars.

Wishner said: “It was a recommendation based on fiscal responsibility.” If Walnut was truly being fiscally responsible, they would have never put this type of benefit into his contract to begin with.

It’s clear that Walnut and other local governments are only now taking such actions because of the scandal in the city of Bell. The media and taxpayers have finally woken up and are asking questions – and government officials are scrambling.

The public needs to continue to demand that our local, state and federal governments spend our money wisely. If not, the same pattern of abuse seen in the city of Bell will return, only this time it might be even worse.